Amazon’s Layoffs In India Likely To Impact HR, Tech, Prime Verticals

The ongoing global layoffs by ecommerce giant Amazon have resulted in elimination of various roles across tech, human resources and Prime verticals in India, sources at Amazon India told Inc42.

The company has also come out with a voluntary separation programme (VSP) for employees of some verticals in India and many employees have tendered their resignations under it since last month, the sources added. 

“Mainly software development engineers have started resigning under VSP. The management has also merged various tech teams after several roles were eliminated,in Gurgaon and Bengaluru offices ” one of the sources said. 

However, employees in the customer care and seller services teams have not been informed of any VSP yet, indicating that the ecommerce giant may not be looking at downsizing the teams handling its core business in the Indian market.

A report by the Economic Times, citing sources, said that the layoff exercise by Amazon in India may eliminate 1,000 jobs. However, when contacted, a spokesperson of Amazon India directed us to the blogpost of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, adding that no additional information can be provided at the moment. 

In what is being called as the largest layoff exercise by any tech company amidst the current global economic slowdown, Jassy on Thursday said that the ecommerce giant plans to layoff 18,000 employees across various departments. 

While it was reported last year that Amazon was planning to layoff around 10,000 employees, Jassy, in the blogpost, said that the decision to cut jobs has resulted in more role reductions this year.

“This year’s review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years. In November, we communicated the hard decision to eliminate a number of positions across our Devices and Books businesses, and also announced a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in our People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organization. I also shared that we weren’t done with our annual planning process and that I expected there would be more role reductions in early 2023,” Jassy said.

He added that a majority of the layoffs will take place in the PXT and Amazon Stores divisions this year.

Amazon’s retail stores vertical, Amazon Stores, has a big presence in geographies outside India and hence the decision to layoff employees from this vertical may not impact the Indian workforce directly, the sources told Inc42.

Indian Employees Leaving Voluntarily: Amazon To Government

Meanwhile, Amazon India told officials of the Labour Ministry in Bengaluru last month that the company did not sack any employees in the country and they were leaving voluntarily. 

The ministry had summoned the ecommerce giant’s India executives following a complaint filed by the National IT Employees Senate (NITES) alleging that the etailer was forcing its employees across India offices to resign.

Harpreet Singh Saluja, general secretary of NITES, told Inc42 that the ministry has now closed the enquiry after receiving Amazon’s response.  

Notably, as per an internal memo sent by Amazon India’s leadership team to various employees, the VSP package includes a lump sum severance payment equivalent to base pay of 22 weeks, one-week base salary for every six months of service (up to a maximum benefit of 20 weeks paid severance), medical insurance coverage for six months, and a notice period or pay in lieu.

Amazon has failed to become profitable in India and continues to pile up losses. However, it managed to narrow its loss 23% year-on-year to INR 3,649 Cr in FY22.